Bridging the Gap
The program BRIDGING THE GAP was conducted on Thursday 25th July at the Rotary Club of Bangalore – an initiative of the International Services Committee of Rotary Club of Bangalore.
The purpose of this program was to start the year with suggestions from the senior Rotarians on how Rotary activities can be improved and how we could get the senior members involved in committee activities.(Seniors being persons who joined Rotary Club of Bangalore in the year 2000 or before.) We found that a large number, totally 70 Rotarians of our club, had joined in 2000 or before.
In addition, we invited a few members of the leadership of the Overseas Women Club. OWC has many social projects and fundraisers. OWC members were eager to get to know us in Rotary and collaborate with us in our projects.
Director Nalini Nanjundayya started the program by raising a toast to the Seniors of the club and ended with a quote,”If your actions have inspired others to dream more, do more and become more, you are truly leaders- to the Senior Rotarians, may you keep inspiring us”.
The hall was filled with a record number of 75 persons who were put together in groups of 6. After the usual formalities, the evening started with wishing Rtn. Dr. H. Paramesh a very happy birthday while he cut a delicious chocolate cake and Rotarians sang for him.
Rtn SVL Narayan conducted an ice breaker session titled “Know your Rotarian”.
This was a fun session where Narayan asked the Rotarians many questions about themselves. Many anecdotes were mentioned and not only did we get to know our Rotarians better, but we also got to know more about the projects of that time, and some incidences they could recollect about the projects.
Interesting facts we learnt:
Rtn. Srichand Rajpal was the youngest member who joined our club. He mentioned how difficult it was to be a young Rotarian in those days. He would memorize the names of 5 members of the club each Monday and specially go speak with them.
Rtn Arjun Menda told us how his education was always on scholarships and that is why he wishes to give back to society through his education scholarships
PDG Prabhashankar spoke about his journey in Rotary which was like an opening batsman. President in 7 years, then DG in 10 years. He also spoke about many projects initiated by him.
Nalini said how in her first year in Rotary she became a mother and how her family grew and learnt in Rotary and now she is addicted to Rotary.
Following this was a group activity conducted by Rtn Anu Varma, where each table of 6 Rotarians were given a set of questions to answer on improvement of Rotary activities. Anu requested each group to put down their thoughts and ideas on:
- How can we improve Rotary?
- How can we involve seniors in our programs and committee meetings?
- How can we utilize the experience of these seniors?
A group leader was chosen, who summarized the thoughts of the group.
Overseas Womens Club President and Treasurer addressed us about their activities.
To wrap up the session, PRID Rtn Panduranga Setty addressed the group and gave us his thoughts and suggestions on improvement.
All suggestions will be collated and will be circulated in the club to be implemented by the different avenues of service.
Rtn Lal Bhatia ended the evening with a beautiful “shayar” in Hindi.
Wine was served at the tables and a delicious Chinese dinner followed.
Seniors of our club applauded the efforts of the International Service Committee and mentioned how necessary it was to bring our seniors to the table to advise us.
Many thanks to Rtn. Chetan Kamani who got us wine at a low rate; To Ann Pragya Jain for bringing the OWC members to our meeting; To SVL Narayan, Anuradha Varma, Gertrude D’Souza, Rosa Pramel, Dilip Kumar Pillai, Gautham and other members of the International Services team who helped at every stage and made the program a success.
- Rtn. Nalini Nanjundayya
- Director- International Services